San Carlos de Guatemala: Public university or convent university

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect on the circumstances surrounding the request made by Bishop Enríquez de Rivera to found the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and to show the differences that, in his opinion, existed between royal, also known as public, universities and convent universities.

The article goes on to suggest that the creation of the University of San Carlos and the disappearance of convent universities in the Americas were due to the changes during the last decades of the XVII century that the ecclesiastical organization in the Indies underwent as a result of increasing secularism and the rise of cathedrals in the Americas.